


Summer Lovin'

by Meldy_Writes



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Billy Hargrove/ Henderson! reader, F/M, au where Billy doesn't get possessed right away so there's time for a summer romance, hinted at eventual Steve/reader, season three, unrequited Steve/ Reader
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:33:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21637411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meldy_Writes/pseuds/Meldy_Writes
Summary: Inspired by a small fic 'Afternoons at the Hawkins Community Pool' by thephantomofthe-internet on tumblr, I liked it, but was like, "what if this was longer, and like, got reaaaly sad at the end?"The reader is Dustin's older sister and has decided to take a job as a lifeguard at the community pool to earn a little extra cash before she goes off to college. The only problem is that one of her co-workers is insufferable. Or is he?
Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Reader
Comments: 7
Kudos: 44





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm the worst. Source? Still haven't finished my WIP fic even though I've been meaning to, and yet i'm starting this disaster. Don't @ me.

(y/n) watched him watching Mrs. Wheeler. She was doing laps in the pool, waterproof makeup applied thickly, bright blue swimsuit tight enough to her body to hide the fact that her boobs were starting to sag. Overall, she looked like a wet clown, and no, (y/n) wasn’t jealous; she was disgusted.

She watched Billy slowly put the whistle between his lips in a way that could be viewed as sensual— _yuck--_ and refused to break his stare on the woman in the water who was a mother of three, one of which was just a year younger than he was-- _double yuck_.

She couldn’t stand having to watch this. Before he could blow on the whistle already between his lips, (y/n) harshly brought her own whistle to her mouth and gave two sharp, loud tweets to signify that adult swim was over.

Billy’s gaze snapped over to her and she couldn’t turn away quick enough. She’d been caught staring. Again. He probably expected her to avert her gaze, seeing as they’d had these shifts together the whole season so far, and not once had she held his gaze whenever they met. This time, however, she kept her cool. He raised an eyebrow at her in a challenge, but she just narrowed her eyes.

Billy was the one to break the stare and she felt victorious for all of two seconds. He’d broken it so he could jump down from his chair and offer Mrs. Wheeler, who was now climbing out of the water and dripping onto the concrete of the pool deck, a towel.

_of course. Blargh._

Her brother was home from camp, she should be at home hanging out with him before she went away to college. Maybe take him to that new mall, buy him ice cream, hang out with Steve and make fun of his sailor costume, but no. She needed spending money during the school year, so instead, she was spending her days yelling at kids for peeing in the pool, getting sunburned, and having uncomfortable staring contests with the biggest blowhard she’d ever met.

He did this every single day at the start of his shift; walking out of the locker rooms with his tits out strutting like a peacock passed the group of cougars that practically drooled at the sight of him and then sat up in his little throne and tried to catch her whenever she stared.

To her credit, most of the time he looked over she wasn’t looking at him, but lately she’d been zoning out in his direction only to snap out of it when she starts to feel his eyes, as blue as the chlorine pool, boring into her. She’d look away with a scowl and she could never hear it over the loud sounds of the pool-goers, but she could _feel_ him laughing at her. Whatever. No one could blame her. There was nothing else good to look at.

Today was different from the norm, he was talking to Mrs. Wheeler instead of just showboating and ogling. It really fucking bothered her. No, not because she was jealous, of course, she wasn’t jealous. It was just that this was the woman that’d she’d grown up with as a second mother thanks to her brother’s friendship with her son, and subsequently the resulting friendship between her and Nancy.

Now, she sat watching this woman shamelessly flirt with a boy (y/n)’s age. She rubbed at her temple before climbing down from her own tower and making her way over to the--god, she couldn’t even think it without retching- _couple._

(y/n) got there just in time to watch Billy stare at Mrs. Wheeler’s swaying ass as she walked away.

“Hey Captain Jailbait,” she called from behind his shoulder.

He turned around, an amused expression on his face as he took a step towards her and leaned over her with a leer, mirroring the posture he’d held with Mrs. Wheeler just seconds ago. Though this was a touch more smothering as she was shorter, and he could lean much farther over her.

She huffed, mocking laughter at his gesture before she rolled her eyes and met his.

“If you’re done scoping out all the hot MILFs,” she continued, the words ‘hot MILFs’ shooting out of her like she was trying to spew them as far from her mouth as she could, “I’m going to go on break. Can I trust you to do your job and watch the pool?”

“Funny coming from you since you’re always staring at me all shift,” his grin was wide and cat-like. She pretended to vomit.

“Don’t flatter yourself I’m always zoned out. I’m not looking at you, I’m looking passed you.”

“Still the point remains, you aren’t watching the swimmers, either.”

She growled a bit, face burning with the shame of her deflated argument.

“W-well, I’m not- It’s not like I do that all the time, its more-just watch the fucking pool, Hargrove.”

His chuckles followed her and her bright red face as she stomped her way to the break room. She couldn’t stand him. She’d spent most of senior year rolling her eyes at his antics and making fun of how much his hair made him look like a labradoodle with Steve, but now that his charms were directed her way, she was a blushing mess! They weren’t even seriously trained on her; he was just making fun of her, which made the fact that it was affecting her that much more frustrating.

She had to admit; he was the most beautiful boy she’d ever seen, but his personality was just so wretched as to make him unfathomably undesirable.

She tore into the bagged lunch she’d packed for herself, angrily biting the PB&J on Wonderbread as she cracked open her book and tried to block out everything that wasn’t 19th century England for a while. Why couldn’t she find a nice Mr. Darcy for herself? She was a sassy, independent girl with no prospects, wasn’t she?

She was halfway through reading Darcy’s letter to Elizabeth when the break room door swung open with reckless abandon, and the warm afternoon air circled through the air-conditioned room. She looked up and spotted Billy padding over to the break table and plopping down in a seat. He leaned back to put his feet up on the table, but not before grabbing the apple from her lunch bag, scrutinizing it, and then biting into it.

(y/n) looked up at the clock, she still had ten minutes left for her break.

“Hey, excuse me, what do you think you’re doing?” she questioned with a shrill voice.

“What’s it look like, Sweetheart? I’m taking my break.”

“I’ve still got ten minutes left, Billy.”

“Congratulations,” he deadpanned, mouth full of fruit, “it’s not like I’m kicking you out.”

she put her book down in a huff, attention now fully on him. While (y/n) took to wearing mesh shorts and a light cardigan over her swimsuit to work, Billy did not and was completely shirtless. The cool air of the room left him covered in goosebumps and his nipples alert. She pretended to not notice. “Someone’s got to watch the pool, Hargrove.”

“Well it’s not me, I just started my break.”

she growled, standing up from the table and rounding on him, hands clenched into fists at her sides. He simply looked up at her like she was an angry kitten.

“Billy, go back out there and watch the pool. In ten minutes, when my break is over, I’ll come back out and _then_ you can go on break.”

He looked passed her at the clock, “technically, you only have seven minutes left now, and that’s not really enough time to warrant arguing over this, is it? Do you think our boss will understand that some kid drowned while the pool was unattended because you had… _six_ minutes left in your break?”

He took another bite out of her apple, obviously very satisfied with himself. Her eye twitched and she grabbed her vanilla pudding cup and tossed it at him. “Here, you want my pudding too, Jerk?” it bounced off him, and he fumbled for a beat before he caught it. She didn’t watch it happen, she was already putting her bookmark into her book and slamming it back on the table.

“Thank you,” he cooed at her retreating form.

She stopped at the door, refusing to let him get the last word. “Oh, and put a shirt on, would you? You’re going to poke someone’s eye out with those things.” she spat, nodding her head towards his chest.

his arms crossed over his nipples, but he still laughed loud and hard at her retreating figure. She’d heard him chuckle flirtatiously before, but that laugh sounded warm and genuine. She shivered, and her stomach rumbled with butterflies-No! No, that was bile, it had to be.

She shook off the thought, and instead clung to her anger, sitting up in her lifeguard chair and opening the umbrella behind her to try and provide herself with some shade.

She turned back around and saw a kid jogging across the pool deck.

“No running!” she barked, watching the kid jump at her harsh tone, and begin to walk instead.

~

She stewed for the rest of the afternoon, getting more and more agitated by the second as Billy’s half-hour of break came and went and there was still no sign of the guy.

Still, she slumped in her seat and watched the pool, her mood only really picking up for a half-second when Dustin and his friends showed up to swim. She’d broken from her stern and thoughtful expression when he’d smiled and waved over at her so she could beam at him, but that had been twenty minutes ago, back when Billy’s break was still in effect.

Now, The Party was getting ready to head home, the afternoon sun starting to fade behind the horizon. She blew the whistle, yelling that the pool would be closing in twenty minutes, and looked down when she caught red hair out of the corner of her eye. Max.

(y/n) hadn’t been watching as closely as she thought, because she hadn’t even noticed that she’d broken from the group to approach her.

“Where’s Billy?” she asked, looking around with a rather bored expression.

(y/n) rolled her eyes, “same place he’s been for forty minutes; the break room.” she nodded towards the building.

Max tried to open the door, but it was locked, and only opened with an employee key card. (y/n) sighed, climbing down from the tower, and moving towards where Max was waiting expectantly. She swiped her card and opened the door for the girl.

He was still leaning back, feet on the table. His eyes were closed, and he had headphones in, a cassette tape blasting some angry hairband past his ears and into the room surrounding him. On the table by his feet was an apple core and an empty pudding container. She knew that technically, she’d offered it to him but still, the fact that he actually ate it ticked her off.

“Hargrove, your sister’s here,” she informed curtly from the doorway.

He didn’t respond, just continued to bob his head at the crap he was listening to, so she tried again, a little louder. “Hey, Captain Jailbait-”

She couldn’t continue as Max brushed passed her, unforgivingly yanking the headphones off her stepbrother’s head. Startled, the guy fell backward, falling to the ground in a heap. (y/n) felt a little bad, but quickly reminded herself that she shouldn’t, because he’s terrible, and he deserved it.

“Max, what the-”

“-I need a ride home. Dad’s going to be home soon, and if I don’t beat him there, we’re both in trouble.”

Billy scrunched his face, looking first at the redhead, then at the clock. He paled, realizing how late it was getting; and hopefully, (y/n) thought, he felt guilty for being on break for longer than he was supposed to.

“Shit. Sorry (y/n), I didn’t realize how late it was,” he apologized softly, catching her off guard for a second at how sincere he sounded, “Shit. Shit! How do I get you home?”

He grabbed at his hair as he got back up, trying to figure out what to do. He seemed genuinely worried, and that made (y/n) a little nervous. she’d never seen him this upset. Well, she had, but he’d been ‘angry’ upset, not really ever ‘scared’ upset.

“Hey, look, calm down. I’ll cover you. Just take her home,” she soothed, unnerved with how distraught he seemed.

What was she saying? Why was she being so nice to him, especially after everything he’d put her through that day?

“You sure?” he questioned, looking her up and down.

“Sure I’m sure, just-just come back and help me close up, okay?” she finished, going back out to round up the stragglers so she could start to lock up.

~

She was really kicking herself, now. What the hell had she been thinking, giving that asshole a free pass? The problem with Labradoodles like him is that if you give him an extra inch of leash, he’ll yank it for miles.

Dustin had offered to wait around with her and help her close, but she’d told him to just head home with his friends, not wanting him to see how tired and frustrated she was, both with herself and with Billy.

Of course, he wasn’t coming back to help close. This was the guy that yelled at kids, flirted with women twice his age, and forced her to come off of break ten minutes early because he just didn’t feel like working any longer; and that was just the shit he’d done that day.

She’d showered and changed out of her suit and into a pair of shorts and a sweatshirt, the night being chilly, despite it not even being July yet. She was sort of kicking herself for letting Dustin leave, she’d started to get paranoid being alone at night since the incident last November, when she’d come back from a shift at the diner to find Steve Harrington’s car in her driveway, and her brother freaking out about a rouge pet that ate Mews.

That turned into a wacky series of events that led to her finding out about a portal to a hell-beast dimension just kinda kicking it in Hawkins; it also led to her starting an unlikely friendship with her best friend’s ex-boyfriend.

She was just starting to recall the more Billy-related scares she’d had that night when she felt someone lift the deck chairs she’d been struggling with out of her grip.

Poof! There he was again like it was no big deal, he just silently started to help stack. She stared at him, rather flabbergasted that he’d actually bothered to show back up.

“Are you just gonna stand there and stare at me, or are you gonna help close up, Henderson?” Billy sassed lightly as he began to start another stack of deck chairs.

She shook herself to clear her head, “no, I’m just shocked. You uh, you actually came back,” she stated in a quiet, dumbfounded tone.

he shrugged, “You told me to come back and help.” He lifted the new stack and grimaced as he started moving them over to the corner of the deck.

He’d put on a shirt, but it was riding up due to the way he was hefting the chairs, and she could see a few fresh bruises on his torso in the dim pool light. She averted her gaze and began stacking herself. That was nothing new. Every once in awhile he’d show up to school or work with bruises on his body, and all his little followers would coo and ask him what happened.

“Got in a fight,” he’d offer up nonchalantly, “You should see the other guy.”

The problem with that excuse was that it happened way more often than rumors about him starting fights did, and despite the deep purple bruises and agitated red cuts, his hands almost never showed any signs of damage.

They were certainly one of the only parts of his body that weren’t injured tonight.

They stacked the rest of the deck chairs in silence, and when it came time to cover the pool, she lifted up her side of the tarp but paused before she started to move it. She could feel eyes on her. She looked up, and for the first time, it was her that had caught Billy staring.

He averted his eyes and began tugging the tarp across the pool. She followed.

“Listen, I just wanted to apologize for being an ass today, and to say thanks for letting me leave for a bit. It was cool of you.”

She flushed, not used to her deeds being recognized, or to having an actual civil conversation with the Denim Beast of Hawkins.

“It’s not that big a deal,” she stated shortly.

“No, it is. Seriously, my dad gets on my case when she’s out somewhere and I fail to get her home in time.”

“Billy, really, it’s alright. My mom’s raising two kids alone in a tiny house in the middle of Butt-Fuck-Nowhere Indiana. Believe me when I say that I get it. Dads suck.”

They were quiet for the rest of the closing process. It wasn’t until they locked the pool gates that he spoke up again.

“Hey, why don’t I buy you a burger or something. A peace offering, so we’re even,” he suggested, swinging his car keys around his finger.

“It’s late, Billy. There’s only one place open, and it’s all the way across town.”

“So? You got somewhere to be tonight? I know you didn’t eat your lunch today, you’re totally hungry.”

“Remind me again how you know that Billy?” she was on her way to smiling at the exchange, she really hadn’t expected to have a spat of banter with the guy that was actually halfway friendly.

He held up his hands in mock surrender, “If I didn’t eat it, no one would have. You were too busy reading that Shakespeare book.”

“Jane Austen,” she corrected.

“Whatever. Look, I’ll even take you home after,” he offered again.

“I drove here, Billy,” she argued. At this point, she was just coming up with any excuse not to agree to eat with him.

If she went out to eat with him, she might actually start to like him, then it’d be considered a date, and she’d promised herself she’d never go out with someone like Billy Hargrove.

“So then I’ll pick you up for our shift tomorrow.”

“Hard pass,” she practically shouted, laughing already at the fit her little brother would throw if he saw Billy pull up in their driveway to take her somewhere.

Still, he’d ignored her and had begun to drag her by the arm to his car, assuring her she’d have fun. “All you do is work and study-”

“-Not true,” she argued.

“So true. You need to relax and enjoy yourself every once in a while, or you’re going to die with your panties in a bunch.”

He opened the car door, and she gave him a look, as if to tell him she was still fighting him on this even though she was lowering herself into the passenger seat, “please refrain from talking about my panties.”


	2. Chapter 2

(y/n) used to work at the diner, she’d had to quit when she got so overwhelmed by college applications that she was constantly having her shifts covered so she could write scholarship essays. They’d understood and offered to keep a position open for her if she wanted to come back during the summer, but she decided to work at the pool instead. A seasonal occupation that she didn’t have to put in a two weeks’ notice for, she just wouldn’t apply for the winter season when they turned it into an ice rink.

Still, the staff was friendly, and the late-night waitress gave her a big smile when she and Billy entered. She came up to the booth they’d sat down at in the nearly empty restaurant. Billy ordered for the both of them, shooing the waitress off as quickly as he could.

“Two burgers, and two milkshakes. One chocolate, and uh—you prefer vanilla, right? One vanilla.”

(y/n) blinked, “how’d you come to that conclusion?”

he shrugged, checking out his reflection in the dark surface of the window, “the pudding cup. Any normal person would have a chocolate one, but you didn’t, figured you didn’t like it or something.”

she scoffed lightly, but couldn’t correct him, he was right. “Okay, Sherlock.”

Their conversation drifted off after that, and (y/n) found she couldn’t stand the quiet. Not when there were so many things she had to say.

“Okay, seriously, what’s with you and Mrs. Wheeler? You’re not actually having an affair with a woman twice your age, are you? Please tell me you’re not doing that.”

He smirked, tearing his gaze from his reflection to smirk flirtatiously at her, “what, are you jealous?”

_Maybe…No!_

“Of course not! I’m just a friend of the Wheeler family, and I’m concerned,” she deflected, playing with her hair.

“You totally are,” he cheered to himself, “What’s Harrington going to say when he finds out his girlfriend’s got a _crush_ on me?”

“I’m _not_ dating Steve,” she defended.

“Oh, no?” he sounded way too fucking pleased.

“And I certainly don’t have a crush. On anyone.” She continued, hoping it would be the end.

“Yeah, except me. I know you’re not just looking passed me when we’re on shift, you’re staring right at me, probably daydreaming.” He batted his eyes, and she started to laugh nervously, her whole face heating up as their milkshakes were placed down in front of them.

“You’re incorrigible,” she grumbled, picking up her drink and using it to cool her face.

“What can I say, I love getting a reaction out of you. Encourage me all you like.”

“No, not encourageable, _in_ corrig- forget it, this was a stupid idea.” she got up from the table in a flustered huff, but his hand gripped hers tightly, pulling her back into the booth and apologizing, but both his tone and his smile told her he wasn’t really sorry.

“Sorry, I’m sorry! Don’t leave.” She didn’t know why she was allowing him to yank her around tonight. “Look, no. Nothing’s really going on with me and Karen.”

She recoiled at the sound of the woman’s first name coming out of his mouth, but she didn’t say anything about it.

“I was just flirting with her because it got your attention.”

(y/n) felt her eyebrows raise so high up her forehead that it hurt her a little, “ _my_ attention?”

He shrugged, “yeah. You’re smart, you’re pretty, you’re mean and funny at the same time, you’ve got huge tits,” the burgers were placed in front of them, and he stared down at the plate, not making eye contact as he confessed to her, putting ketchup on his burger, “plus, it’d piss Harrington off royally if we started dating, so two birds, you know?”

She laughed again, this time genuinely, and saw his mask slip. His usual smirk slid away to reveal a real smile. Beautiful.

They ate their dinner in silence, though this time, it was comfortable and friendly. As promised, he’d paid for her meal and took her home. She’d hesitated in her move to get out once he’d stalled the car in her driveway.

“So, you’re going home now, huh?”

“I mean, unless you want to make out, yeah.”

She rolled her eyes, tone soft as she explained, “I just meant--I’m not blind, Billy, I know you’re not just getting into fights all the time. Are you going to be alright when you get home? It’s pretty late.”

“Don’t worry about it.” he shut down harshly, softening his tone when he realized how sharp it was, “I mean; I’ll be fine, just get inside, okay? I’ll pick you up tomorrow around two.”

Her heart pounded a bit, in sympathy, or maybe in something else. Either way, she leaned over and kissed the corner of his mouth, not giving him time to respond. She simply pulled away and got out of the car.

She paused briefly before shutting the passenger door to say one last thing: “You know, you’re not nearly as much of an asshole as you pretend to be.”


	3. Chapter 3

As expected, when 2 o’clock rolled around, Dustin was at the window staring out at the loud car he knew belonged to one Billy Hargrove. He’d honked a few times as if the Scorpions song blaring wasn’t clue enough that he’d arrived.

(y/n) bounced down the stairs, hair in a high pony, work attire on, and a backpack full of civies slung over her shoulder as her flip flops clapped across the linoleum.

“Bye Ma, I’m going to work, I’ll see you tonight- bye, Dusty,” she called before ruffling his hair and trying to leave for the day.

“Wait, wait, _wait_ ,” he stopped her, lisp heightened with the height of his astonishment, “Why isn’t your car in the driveway, and why is Max’s brother driving you to work?”

She rolled her eyes, trying to finish the conversation as quick as she could, “we grabbed dinner last night, and he took me home after, my car’s still in the parking lot of the pool.”

“You went on a _date_? With _Billy_?”

“It wasn’t a date, Dustin, he was just-”

“-Does Steve know?” He ignored her excuses, choosing instead to grill her with more questions. He, like a lot of other people, their mother included, thought that she and Steve were dating, or at least, that they were soon to be dating. Nothing could be further from the truth in reality but try telling that to literally anyone in town.

“No, Steve doesn’t know,” she sassed, voice coming out quick and mocking, “he’s not my keeper, and neither are you,” the car horn sounded again, and (y/n) opened the front door to flip him off before she kissed her brother’s forehead.

“I’ve got to go, be good for Mom, okay?”

“I’m not a child, you don’t have to tell me that every time.”

she blew him a kiss in response before she plopped into the passenger seat with a heavy sigh.

“Took you long enough,” came the gruff response of her…

Friend? Acquaintance? She decided to go with Co-worker.

“Yeah, well, like I said last night: my brother hounded me the second he saw your car in the driveway. You know you really made an impression last November. On all of us.” she shivered just a bit, the realization of just who she was in the car with fully dawning on her.

How could she have forgotten? She’d _kissed_ him last night. Granted it hadn’t been fully on the lips or anything, but still; was a pretty face and a bit of common decency all it took to get her to forget how vile someone was?

He’d threatened to _kill_ Lucas--hell; he’d _almost_ killed Steve.

Sure, it was obvious to anyone who actually bothered to look that he came from a bad home and that he probably grew up around violence, but that’s no excuse. God, what was wrong with her? The more she thought back on how he’d acted in the Byers home that night, the more frightening the guy became. And she’d just gotten into a car with him without hesitation. _Twice._

She was suddenly tense, and she knew Billy could tell.

“You alright, Henderson?”

She snapped from her thoughts, looking over at him for a brief second, but couldn’t meet his piercing baby blues--concern and apprehension swimming in their depths-- without remembering how they’d been bright, and dilated, and chaotic as he’d lifted Lucas off the ground and kicked Steve around the Byers living room like he was a soccer ball. She turned back quickly to look out the windshield.

“Yeah,” she assured, forcing herself to look back in his eyes and not visibly wince, “yeah, I’m fine, I just remembered a scene in a scary movie I watched the other night.”

“You’re a terrible liar,” he deadpanned, car speeding down the road to match his accelerated aggravation.

~

She hadn’t looked at him once all shift, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t occupying her thoughts. Visions of him beating and threatening and grinning like a shark flooded her mind. Everything was flooding inside her, and the constant poking feeling of his eyes burned her and brought an anxious feeling to her gut. She felt like she was drowning in the chemical blue water she was staring into. It really did remind her of his eyes.

He hadn’t strut for the cougars that day. He’d kept a Whitesnake t-shirt on instead of letting his torso glow in the sun and had stomped like a toddler to his chair where he’d promptly sat and glowered at the water. Mrs. Wheeler had approached his chair to try and take him up on the ‘private lessons’ he’d offered the day before, but he’d informed her he no longer offered those in a voice loud and dismissive enough for (y/n) to hear. She looked up for a half-second, rather surprised to hear him not flirting with the clown woman, and when he’d noticed she’d taken a glance at him, he’d perked up just a tad, and for the rest of the day, his eyes were on no one and nothing but her.

Another thing he hadn’t done that day was come bother her on her break. He’d waited patiently while she barley ate her lunch and read to herself. She left him her apple and half her sandwich, but she ate the pudding cup this time and pretended she hadn’t left him a thing.

Her shift was supposed to be an hour earlier than his, which meant she didn’t need to stick around and help close the pool even though he’d come to work an hour before he was supposed to just for her. After her grand realization in the car that morning, she didn’t feel inclined to be alone with him after dark, or to help him with absolutely anything.

She showered, short and cold, before changing into a tight pair of short shorts and a loose tank, ideal for the hot, humid night. She gave a quick, clipped goodbye to her co-worker stacking deck chairs while she fumbled through her purse for her keys.

she stopped at the open gate to put all her focus on her bag when the desired item didn’t immediately find its way into her reaching hand. Where were they?

Oh, that’s right.

They’re on her kitchen counter.

Because she didn’t take her car that day.

Her skin prickled as she felt the stare on her back grow smug.

“Did you forget your keys, Henderson?” came a pleased and teasing drawl.

“No. I have them,” she lied, resigning herself to walking home and taking a few steps before that same sing-song started up again.

“Good, that’s a relief. You’re a pretty, defenseless young woman, I’d hate to think you might have to walk home. Alone. In the dark. Who knows what might be lurking out there.”

God damn it.

“You’ve made your point; can I catch a ride with you or not?” He was such a little asshole sometimes—most times.

“That depends, are you going to help me close up?”

She sighed, pulling her wet hair up into a bun so it wouldn’t get in her face while she helped stack the chairs. She still refused to look at him, but she could just feel the pleased energy radiate off him like warmth off a space heater.

~

Despite requesting that he take her straight home, she found herself parked in one of the many secluded and empty fields out in Hawkins. She crossed her arms and brought her knees up to her chest. Her flip flops were off, and the worn leather of Billy’s passenger seat was warm and soothing against her bare feet. Billy had turned the car off, but the cabin light on, and was now patiently staring at her; waiting for her to speak first.

“If you’re planning on killing me and dumping my body, could you at least do it somewhere that doesn’t smell like boredom and cow manure?”

“Do you really think I’d hurt you?” came his abrupt reply.

She held her hands up, still staring straight out the windshield, “it was just a joke, I don’t actually think you’re trying to kill me.”

“I’m not talking about that, I’m talking about the shit you pulled this morning. You talked about that thing last fall, and then you froze up and stopped looking at me. I’m going to ask you again; do you actually think I’d hurt you?”

She fell silent, and Billy began to fidget in his seat.

“Well? Yes or no? It’s not that hard a question, (y/n).”

“I don’t know!” she barked, finally, _finally_ looking at him.

His eyes were bright, and dilated, but they weren’t filled with a threat or the promise of violence she’d expected to see. They seemed almost desperate.

“You don’t know,” he repeated flatly.

“No. I don’t. I don’t know you well at all. I know that you’re _capable_ of being kind, I know that you’re willing to escort a girl home at night sometimes,” she emphasized ‘sometimes’ by gesturing around her at the open field that definitely wasn’t her driveway, “but I also know that you’re capable of lifting thirteen-year-old boys off the ground and threatening them, and I know you’re capable of running those same thirteen-year-olds off the road--yeah, I haven’t forgotten about that.”

That had been how they met, officially. She’d sauntered over, complimenting his car, before mentioning that one of the boys he almost killed was her brother and that if he did anything like that again she’d slash his tires. He’d thought she was a bitch for it, but damn, had it caught his attention.

He didn’t reply at first, so she simply re-crossed her arms and leaned against the passenger door so she could face him better.

After a moment of scanning her face, he sniffed, turned the car back on and said, “Okay then, fine.”

“What?” she asked, already dreading what that might mean.

“You don’t know me, but you’re going to _get_ to know me. We’re going on a freaking date. Right now.”

She whined, leaning her head back until it bumped against the window, “no, Billy, for the love of God, please just take me home. Now.”

He drove the car in a circle, making a perfect doughnut in the grass to drive back in the direction they’d come, only taking his eyes off where he was driving to turn off the cab light. She was thankful. The bright light had been blinding and provided absolutely no cover from her driver’s scrutinizing stare.

“You’re the one who said you didn’t know me all that well,” he argued.

“That doesn’t mean I _want_ to know you.”

“But you do, wanna know how I know?”

She closed her eyes, and shook her head, “not really, but I get the feeling you’re going to tell me.”

“You’re still calling me Billy. Not Hargrove, not Captain Jailbait, Billy.” He stressed the ‘B’ in his name, coming closer so he could verbally punch it through her ear.

There was silence in the car, and he was most likely going to take her wherever he wanted no matter what she said, so she sighed and gave in.

“Fine. One date. One,” she emphasized by holding up a finger, “and if you think you’re going to get in my pants afterward, you’re sorely mistaken.”

He chuckled, “no worries, I pegged you as at least a three-dates-before-sex kind of girl, and unless you want to count the other night as a date, too-”

“-I really don’t.”

“Then I guess that settles it, huh?”


	4. Chapter 4

She fidgeted with her straw, looking around at the decor, the pattern on the table, the light fixtures, anywhere but at the guy across the table from her.

“So,” she started, a little breathless from the nerves, “What do we talk about?”

“Just whatever comes to mind,” he offered up. They were sitting at the same table, in the same empty diner, ordering the same thing, but everything felt different somehow.

“I’ve never really done this before,” she admitted with a shy smile and a scrunch of her nose.

“You’ve never been on a date?” He asked like he couldn’t believe it, and he couldn’t. Though she seemed unsure of herself at that moment, he knew for a fact that she was confident, funny, and just an absolute bombshell in a red lifeguard swimsuit.

“Have you met any of the guys we went to school with?” she defended sharply, and he conceded her point.

when Dick-Douche Tommy, King Steve, and Freak Byers were the only guys in the school to have long-term girlfriends, the rest of the male student body couldn’t possibly have enough game between them to procreate.

“Fair point. Usually, you talk about yourself. Your likes, dislikes, favorite bands, favorite movies… just whatever.” He shrugged casually, stirring his milkshake with his straw.

“Well, that’s a pretty steady template, but I don’t think we’re really going to find any common ground there,” she joked.

He gave her a look that said, ‘try me’, and she grinned.

“Favorite color.”

he scanned her body, remembering again how she looked in her lifeguard uniform. “Red. You?”

she smiled, and he could almost swear it was flirtatious, “blue.”

he asked a question then, “Favorite movie.”

“Singing in the Rain,” she stated immediately with a fond smile, “you?”

“The Changeling.”

They went back and forth a bit, both coming back with answers so opposite from each other there couldn’t possibly be an overlap in taste.

“Favorite band, mine’s Def Leppard.”

“Queen,” was her answer. It was an answer she was rewarded with an annoyed and exasperated groan for. She smiled brightly at his vexation.

“That pop-band of softies? That’s so incredibly predictable, I expected something a little less mainstream out of you.”

she pouted and made a sympathetic noise through her teeth for him, “Sorry, Sweetie, but Freddie Mercury just gets me in a way you never could.”

“I’m getting there, don’t count me out yet,” he promised.

She continued to grin, her teeth white, and straight, and perfect. Things were going better than he’d expected them to, despite the apparent lack of shared interests, she seemed to be having a good time.

“Go on, your turn to ask a question,” he nodded towards her.

she sighed, leaning over the table a bit to try and get a glimpse of the cook supposedly making their burgers before she continued their conversation, “Let’s just get right to the heart of it; what do you usually do when you’re hanging out with friends?”

“Drink. Smoke. Make out with cute girls.”

She giggled, giving him a wry look, “Yeah, I don’t really do any of those things- well, maybe that last one, but only if the girl is _really_ special.”

He laughed at that, but she hadn’t laughed with him, not all the way, “alright, well, what _do_ you do?”

She’d smirked at him before turning over her paper placemat and calling the waitress, a girl she referred to as Tammy, and asking for crayons.

“Crayons,” he parroted.

“What, you’re too good for crayons?” she challenged, “You’re too _cool_ for crayons?”

“No, I’m just not five years old.”

“Yeah, and I guess you’ve no sense of whimsy, either,” she threw out as Tammy placed down a couple of cups filled with what she claimed were ‘the sharpest utensils in the house.' “Come on, Killjoy, just draw something. I can’t get a sense of what kind of person you are until you sketch your masterpiece with a Crayola.”

Billy wanted to roll his eyes so hard they fell out of his skull, but instead, he obeyed, picking up a red crayon and mimicking her position with his now flipped placemat.

He tried to peek a few times at whatever she was drawing, thinking that maybe if he could end up drawing the same thing as her, he could prove they had things in common, but she kept her art securely hidden, so he decided to just draw the first thing that came to mind.

When it came time to reveal, he uncovered a rather impressive sketch of a skull with a rose in its teeth. He was actually kind of proud of it, and had to admit, she was right; it had been sort of fun.

(y/n) scanned it, a soft smile lighting her features like the soft glow of fairy lights, “that’s really beautiful.”

“Yeah, I’m a regular Picasso. What do you got for me?”

She daintily held up a drawing in blue. Her smile was sweet, yet mischievous, like she was keeping a secret from him but hiding it in plain sight. There were so many varying shades and line widths that there was just no way she did it with one single color, but between her fingers she held a used and abused azul crayon with the point worn down nearly flat. The outer lines were drawn in thick, dark curves made with a significant amount of pressure that he could spy little chunks of wax stuck to the paper from it. It must have cramped her hand to do that. Some of the smaller lines were lighter, and thinner, but still dark against the background to accentuate detail, and in the center of her piece, a light, vibrant shade filled the space. She’d drawn a strikingly detailed bright blue eye.

~

The lights were off on in the house, and (y/n) gave a shaky breath. Awesome. She’d have to sneak around as soon as she walked through the door. She reluctantly unbuckled her seatbelt and exited the car, noticing with a bit of surprise that Billy was doing the same.

“What are you doing?” she questioned.

“Walking you to the door,” he informed slowly, like he was talking to a child, “it’s what you do on dates.”

She scoffed, and allowed him to lead her up the path with her arm linked with his, “Thanks so much for informing me, where would I be without you?”

He shrugged, allowing her to untangle from him when they got to the front step, “probably somewhere along the side of the road still trying to walk home.”

He’d given her his denim jacket to wear when they were leaving the diner, as it had gotten a little chilly during the time they’d spent eating, and now she was shrugging it off and handing it back to him with a soft smile.

“Alright, I’ll admit it. I had fun.”

He gripped the edge of the jacket, but didn’t fully take it from her just yet, “enough fun to do it a second, and possibly third time?”

She giggled, “oh, so you’re just biding your time to get to the infamous sex on the third date, I see your game, now.”

“You see right through me, huh?” he played along, “you didn’t give me an answer.”

“We’ll have to wait and see.” she let go of the denim once she knew he had a grip on it. “Goodnight, Billy.”

She turned to go inside but before she could do so much as touch the doorknob, he’d grabbed her arm and turned her back around so he could fully plant his lips on hers.

It was fireworks. Red, yellow, and blue fireworks, blending together and exploding behind her eyelids and bathing her in colorful warmth. She was being pressed against the green-painted face of her front door, and the shock of cold wood against her bare skin had her squirming away and subsequently into the hot body in front of her. He stepped closer, wrapping an arm around her lower back and securing her in the position she’d found herself in. He was warm and savory, and his hair was so soft; she’d always assumed it’d be tangled, or crunchy from all the hairspray he must use. He pulled away before she was ready, eyes staying closed, and she could feel his smile through the breath he let out across her face.

Her eyes fluttered open, and yes, she was indeed correct. He was grinning like a champ and didn’t he just look so proud of himself.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he told her in goodbye.

“You won’t, Heather changed the schedule last minute. Apparently, she suddenly needs this Friday off, so we switched.”

He groaned, pressing his forehead against hers, slyly trying to cup her butt as he complained, “I’m working with Heather?”

“Afraid so, Buckaroo,” she feigned sympathy while reaching behind to grab his hands and pry them away from her.

“I’ll still see you; you need your car.”

“I can just get Steve to drop me off before his shift, you’ve been carting me around all week.”

Billy nearly sneered at the mention of his rival; and Steve was his rival, in more ways than just who was more popular in Hawkins high. Whether (y/n) was aware of that was another matter.

“No, I’m going anyways, and If I clock in before Heather, I can leave early and stick her with closing duty,” he reasoned, not taking no for an answer.

“Ever the gentleman,” (y/n) snarked, poking at him, a gesture that turned intimate the moment her finger touched his chest. She splayed her hand across his shirt, looking up, and stepping on her tiptoes to place a soft sweet kiss to his lips, “goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” he agreed.

She opened the door, and entered her house, smiling shyly and watching his warm expression when she turned back to close it. “Goodnight,” she whispered again through the small crack that was left, and then it was closed, and she was home, and the date was over.

She found herself grinning and biting at her fingernail. She’d just gone on a date with Billy Hargrove, and she’d had a good time. She leaned her back against the door and covered her face with her hands.

“Oh, my god, I’m in so much trouble,” she giggled out in a whisper.

~

She tried her best to sneak to her room, keyword ‘tried’. She’d taken her flip flops off at the door as to make as little noise as possible, but the second she padded onto the carpet of the living room, the lamp by the Lazyboy flicked on, and the person in the chair turned around.

She winced at first, but soon she heard the squeaky lisp that let out the words, “And where have you been?” and she immediately relaxed.

“Christ on a bike, Dustin, I almost shit my pants. I thought you were Mom.”

“Do you have any idea what time it is?” he continued with thinly veiled frustration.

“Yes, that’s why I almost shit my pants.”

“Who’s keeping you out this late? You better say Steve.”

She rolled her eyes, making an annoyed gurgle at the back of her throat, “Who are you, my dad? Go to bed, Dusty.”

She moved passed him, but he followed her up the stairs, “it was Billy, again, wasn’t it? What the hell, (y/n)? Do you not remember what he did last November? He almost ran me over on Halloween. I almost died dressed as a ghostbuster thanks to him, do you remember that?”

“But he didn’t, and I threatened to slash his tires if he tried it again, remember _that_?” She tried to shut the door to her room on him, but he stuck his foot in the way, his sneaker catching the doorframe quite completely.

“That’s all it takes for you to forgive him? That’s all my life’s worth to you?” He asked, his second question was phrased quieter, as (y/n) had shushed him and motioned towards their mother’s room.

“Right now?” she enunciated, emphasizing their current standing with each other, “right this second? Yeah.”

She kicked at his sneaker hard enough to move his foot and secured her door shut for the night.


	5. Chapter 5

(y/n) spent the morning shut up in her room doing something she’d never done before and would swear to her deathbed never happened; she planned her outfit around what she thought a guy might like to see her in.

At the back of her closet, a little red sundress with tiny yellow roses hung patiently, and she pulled it out. Her grandmother had given it to her a few years ago, and she’d definitely grown and inch taller and a cup size bigger since then- yes, this should do quite nicely.

He’d said his favorite color was red, and he’d doodled a rose the other night, right? This had to be a hit. Trying it on, she figured it wouldn’t matter if it was bright orange with purple polka dots; it was just short and low-cut enough that it could sport just about any design. She put on a pair of wedges, and by the time she’d finished fretting and scrutinizing in the mirror, she could hear his car’s radio roaring down the street.

(y/n) bounded down the stairs, barely uttering out a “Hi Mom, bye Mom” to the woman cooking bacon before she swiped her keys off the counter and swung her purse over her shoulder.

“Aren’t you going to invite your little friend inside and introduce me?” Mrs. Henderson called to her daughter’s retreating red caboose. She heard the laugh of the word ‘Nope’ that had been tossed back through the rapidly closing front door.

The vibrant woman was already in the car before Billy had the chance to put it in park, but he did so anyway so he could eye her up.

“Very nice. You get dressed up for me?”

She huffed exaggeratedly, cheeks turning a lively shade of pink. Discovered already.

“N-no, I dress like this all the time in the summer,” she tried.

Billy’s smirk widened, “you forget, babe, I’ve seen you almost every single day this summer, so I know that’s not true.”

“Well,” she continued, still refusing to admit that she’d spent half an hour trying to look nice for Billy Hargrove, “I’m going to go visit Steve today, maybe I dressed up for him, you don’t know.”

His hand moved to play with the short crimson hem of her skirt, running his thumb over one of the pale-yellow flowers. “Really. You dressed up in a bright red sundress for Sailor Steve the morning after you go on a date with me and learn that red just so happens to be _my_ favorite color.”

When he put it like that, she couldn't really deny it; she wasn’t being very stealthy.

“You don’t know my life,” she offered weakly.

He put his hands up in mock surrender, “fine, fine, if you don’t want to admit it, you don’t have to. But if it makes you feel any better, I think I’ll wear something blue on our next date.”

“Bold of you to assume there’ll be a second date.”

“Naïve of you to think there won’t be,” he tossed her a wink, tugged on the hem of her dress twice, and then put the car in reverse, “got your keys this time?”

She silently held them up in her hand, still reeling from his last little comeback.

~

Robin nearly choked on her own spit when (y/n) walked through the door. She was used to seeing the girl in the ice cream shop visiting Steve, but she’d never seen her like this. She was obviously dressed to impress someone, and though Robin was loathed to put a tally in the ‘you rule’ column, if it meant a girl as pretty as (y/n) was going to be coming into her place of work looking like a pin-up almost all the time, she could probably put up with it.

“Hey, Robin.” the Henderson girl greeted chirpily, “I’m here to rant and bully Steve into giving me free ice cream. Is he working today?”

The ice cream girl laughed deeply, turning to speak into the window of the break room, “Hey, Dingus, your wife is here.”

“My what now?” Steve stressed with mild annoyance as he stuck his head through the opening.

Robin had been making fun of him half the summer for consistently striking out with customers, and at this point, the regulars were getting monikers like his ‘soulmate’ or his ‘star-crossed-fiancé’ ‘wife’ was new, and not nearly dramatic enough to be a dig.

He spotted (y/n), who was smiling and waving cutely at him, donning what had to be the shortest dress she owned. “(y/n)!” he exclaimed in a panic, ducking down and out of the window quick before re-appearing in the doorway, hat forgone, and hair tousled slightly.

“what-uh, what’s going on?” He feigned nonchalance, leaning heavily against the doorframe.

“Nothing, what’s up with you? You seem jumpy.” She raised an eyebrow and gave out a slight giggle when the breakroom door swung back into place and shoved him out into the storefront, “I’m so glad I decided not to apply here with you, I could never pull off stripes. Still a fan of those shorts of yours, though.”

He laughed with her, tousling his hair again and offering her a seat at the bar so he could keep an eye on the customers while she visited. Robin on the other hand, swiftly scurried to the back with all the subtlety of an elephant.

“So, what brings you here?” Steve questioned casually as he made her a sundae.

“Heather, if you can believe it. She all-of-a-sudden just had to get this Friday off the second I start getting along with Billy, so she’s currently spending this fine summer afternoon ogling the poor guy meanwhile tomorrow I’ve got to spend the day with Creepy Greg. Remember Greg Leeman?”

He froze in the middle of his project to look up at her in alarm, “yeah, I remember Creepy Greg—Hey, did you just say you were getting along with Billy? As in; Billy Hargrove. Labradoodle Billy. The guy I had to save you from last year.”

(y/n) snorted, “I think you mean the guy who threw you around the room like you were made of Papier-mâché, but yeah.”

“Hey, I won that fight.”

“No,” she reminded, “Maxine won that fight.”

He mocked her, parroting what she’d said right back at her in a high-pitched whine.

“Oh, that's nice. That’s mature. I don’t sound like that, Jerk.”

“ _I don’t sound like that, Jerk,_ ” he replied again.

“Just scoop my ice cream, ice cream scooper,” she pouted, tossing a balled-up napkin from a nearby dispenser at him.

Steve shook his head, trying to get back on topic, “So you and Billy, are you guys like—like friends now? I thought we agreed he was a dick tip.”

She already knew her friend wouldn’t appreciate the fact that she’d gone on a date with the guy he actively despised, so while he continued to casually grill her, she decided to try and change the subject.

“Hey, aren’t you supposed to be wearing a hairnet or something? There’s no way it’s sanitary to just let you wear your hair like that, Farrah Fawcett.”

Robin, who’d been expertly eavesdropping until now, popped up in the window clutching a sailor hat.

“As a matter of fact,” she informed gleefully, “He’s supposed to be wearing a hat. This hat.” She tossed the sailor cap out and over the counter where (y/n) caught it with a bit of difficulty.

“Oh, I just love this,” she grinned.

“Don’t you just?” Robin agreed, grinning evilly.

Steve groaned but allowed (y/n) to lean over the sneeze guard and place that hat back on his head.

“Oh, perfect,” she purred, “Ahoy, Sailor.”

He placed the dessert he’d made right in front of her and then backed up out of her reach, fiddling with the hat so it wasn’t as crooked and clumsily placed as (y/n) had made it.

“Alright, that’s great, we’ve all had fun making fun of me, now tell me again how you got to be friends with Billy Hargrove?”

She shoveled a spoonful of vanilla into her rosy cheeks, and shrugged noncommittedly, “I never said we became friends, I just said we’re starting to get along. He’s really not as bad as you think.”

Steve grumbled, “oh, I have it on good authority that he’s much worse.”

“Oh, come on. You’ve talked to him what-two times?” (y/n) defended to her sundae, “You have to converse with him at least four before he starts growing on you.”

“Yeah, like a tumor.”

She gave him a withering look, but it was cut off when someone else burst through the breakroom door, “Where the hell did you go? I thought it was your turn to help translate the-”

(y/n) looked away from her conversation partner when her brother made an entrance. Dustin paled when he saw her propped up on the barstool.

“I thought you were at work.”

“I thought _you_ were at Mike’s.”

They stood staring at each other, with (y/n) becoming more and more amused the longer the situation went on. The others seemed to tense, and she got the feeling they were hiding something from her.

“What are you doing here?” Dustin interrogated bluntly

“What are _you_ doing here?”

“I asked you first,” he deflected, “aren’t you supposed to be at the pool practicing CPR with your boyfriend?”

“Boyfriend?” Steve interrupted, spluttering.

“He’s not my boyfriend, Dusty, we went on one date.”

“You went on a date with him?” Steve was shushed after his second interruption. Everything was devolving into chaos, and (y/n) was no longer having fun with it.

“But you went out with him the night before, too.”

“I already told you, that wasn’t a date, that was-”

“It’s a date now that you’re dating him, you’re planning on seeing him again, right?”

(y/n) laughed exasperatedly, realizing that all three of her companions were staring at her with varying levels of shock, horror, and accusation. she picked up the Styrofoam cup full of ice cream and caramel syrup and spun off the bar stool.

“You know what? I don’t care what you’re doing here anymore. Have fun. Whatever. Say whatever you like about me dating Billy, but you know what? At least he doesn’t make me feel bad about myself.”

Steve tried to say something, maybe to apologize, maybe to tell her she’s overreacting, but she cut him off.

“Don’t,” she seethed, picking up her sundae’s cherry by the stem and popping it in her mouth. She yanked the fruit from its holder and chewed a bit before she continued, “don’t you dare judge me.”

Once she was gone, Robin let out a low whistle, propping up the whiteboard to erase the one tally in the ‘you rule’ column and moving it over to ‘you suck’. “Tough break, guys. Looks like this one was a joint effort.”


	6. Chapter 6

By the time Saturday rolled around she’d made amends with her brother. He’d apologized because he needed to be on her good side so she’d let them have a group movie night while their mother was out of town, and she’d accepted because she just couldn’t stay mad at him, she’d never been able to.

The Party was mostly there, she’d even managed to get Hopper to allow El over which was almost a miracle. All they were waiting for now really, were Steve and Max.

They’d done these movie nights often throughout the years, with the members in attendance shrinking and growing with time. Both Johnathan and Nancy had come during movie nights at one point, but they’d stopped coming after a while. At different points, and for different reasons, but now it was because spending time with them when they were in a room together was nigh impossible. They were always off in their own world, and (y/n) was happy for them, though it was outweighed by how annoyed and jealous she was by it all. She felt like she lost two really close friends. To each other.

(y/n) would never admit this, but in some ways, Steve had become her new Nancy. She was rather attached to him, and she really didn’t know what she’d ever do if she had to stop hanging out with him for the same reasons she stopped hanging with Nance. she'd never admit this, either, but with how close he’d been getting with Robin recently, (y/n) was beginning to worry that losing him was a fear that might come true.

She shook off her thoughts. That was ridiculous, he’d never drop her just because he found someone new to hang with, she wasn’t just some toy, they were partners in babysitting and monster fighting. They were a team, and he wasn’t going to go on some grand adventure with Robin and not invite her…

Right?

She took a break from mixing onion dip in a bowl to scan the polaroids on the kitchen corkboard. Some of them were baby pictures, one of them was of her and baby Dustin in the bath, a few were of her and Nancy, but a lot of them were more recent, and depicted her and Dustin and Steve. She smiled to herself and continued to stir.

Right. They were rock solid.

She’d just placed out the dip and potato chips when a knock came at the door. She opened it to see Max and Billy on the other side. The redhead gave her a smile and a quick ‘hey’ before she moved farther into the house to greet the others and left (y/n) alone in the hall with her brother.

“I was about to ask you what you were doing here,” (y/n) breathed, “I keep forgetting you guys are siblings.”

“Step-siblings,” he corrected nonchalantly. He lingered on the doorstep, expectant, and she didn’t really know what he was waiting for. He raised an eyebrow at her, moving his gaze to the commotion going on in the house behind her, and she snapped into a realization.

“Uh, did you want to come in and join us? You’re welcome to, but I don’t know if you’ll enjoy yourself; it’s going to be me, and Steve, and a bunch of kids. Not really a booze, weed, and cigarettes kind of hangout.”

She moved out of the way once he started walking through the threshold, “neither was our date, but we still managed to have a good time. Maybe if we’re really lucky Steve will have to cancel due to an ice cream emergency.”

shook her head with a semi-amused snort and shut the door behind him. She led him into the kitchen where she’d started to prepare the stove for popcorn making. “Please be nice. I know I invited you, but if you two pick a fight with each other, it’s going to be you I kick out of the house.”

She started pouring the cooking oil into the pot and setting it on the stove with a few kernels in it. Once they popped, she’d start working towards making a batch, but for the moment she had to wait for the stovetop to heat up.

She leaned back against the counter with her eyes closed while she waited, opening them a beat later to realize that she’d been trapped against it by Billy. “If I’m good, could we consider this a second date?” She heard him say close to her ear.

She smirked and pushed him back a bit so she could see his face, “only if you’re on your very best behavior.”

He leaned down again, fighting against her pushing hands, almost kissing her. “Very, very best. Promise.”

“You’d better.”

Their lips connected and it was just as sweet as the first time, though it had a much ruder awakening.

“Gross, why is he here?” Dustin whined from the doorway.

She groaned, lightly shoving Billy away so she could point towards the living room, “Dustin, go pick a movie.”

“We did already, I just wanted a Sunny D but apparently I can’t even walk through my own house without walking into a horror movie.”

(y/n) rolled her eyes and opened the fridge to grab a bottle of juice for him. She chucked it at him, missing on purpose, and it slid across the floor and out of the room.

“There. Now get out.”

He obeyed, grumbling the whole way.

Billy chuckled as he watched the exchange, “glad to know Max and I aren’t the only ones who don’t really get along.”

(y/n) shook her head, feeling defensive and slightly guilty, “We do, usually. We’ve just been arguing a bunch lately. He doesn’t like you very much.”

“Let me guess, he’d rather you go and date his little friend Stevie.”

She crossed her arms, even more on guard. “Would you stop? I know you don’t like him, but he’s my friend. Do you have to get so vicious whenever we talk about him?”

He moved passed her towards the corkboard and ran his fingers along one of the pictures. Dustin had taken it over Christmas break. They’d been hanging out by the train tracks, balancing on the metal rails and (y/n) had been the one to stay on longer, so for her victory prize Steve had to give her a piggyback ride the whole way back to town. In the picture, she was on his back, legs splayed out in front of them, and arms wrapped loosely around his neck. They were both laughing.

“Can you blame me?” Billy asked, taking her out of the memory.

“We’re close, sure, but it’s platonic. There’s nothing going on.”

Billy sighed heavily like he was frustrated with her, but he quickly composed himself, “Maybe not on your end, there isn’t.”

Before she could ask him what he meant her front door was swinging open and Steve was bursting through like he owned the place, boisterously announcing that he’d brought KFC. It was something that he did all the time, just showing up and making himself at home, but for some reason (y/n) had only just realized how often it actually happened.

Billy hadn’t turned around to see it. He’d kept his gaze on (y/n) and it had gotten more and more pointed and filled with implication the farther Steve got into the house.

The popcorn in the oil popped, and she took the pot off the stove so she could add the rest of the kernels and set the timer. When she turned back around, she spotted Billy making his way out of the kitchen and locking eyes with Steve. Their paths crossed in the doorway when Steve started to enter the way Billy’d just left. (y/n) tried not to make her annoyance too obvious. Could they not just get along for her sake?

“What’s he doing here?” Steve questioned the second Billy was gone. He placed the bucket of chicken on the counter just bordering on violently. (y/n) winced at the sound it made but continued to place the pot back on the burner.

“I invited him, Steve. You don’t have to like it, but you do have to put up with it.”

She turned around once she was done, hands on her hips.

“What’s next, you going to invite him to go monster hunting with us?”

She pinched the bridge of her nose, “no, of course not, I’d never drag him into that. Why are you getting so defensive? I don’t get on your case for hanging out with Robin.”

The popcorn began to pop, and they had to raise the volume on their rather hushed conversation, “That’s because I’m not dating Robin. Also, last time I checked, she’s not a sociopath.”

“Neither is Billy, he’s just a little rough around the edges.”

The popping got louder, and so did their argument, but it was for more reasons than just to be heard over the cooking food, the two friends were getting just as heated as the kernels.

“And you can change him, right?” Steve accused rolling his eyes at the overused excuse girls used to date bad boys.

“I’m not trying to change him, I just thought he needed a friend. A real friend, a good one.” Her tone became softer at that, touching his arm briefly. They were different, they were at odds, but that was one thing they had in common; when (y/n) came into their lives, it was because they needed someone stable to turn to. “Turns out, I needed a little more than that.”

He took her hand from his arm, holding it in his. He grabbed her other hand too, and squeezed them, “I get that, it’s just- Billy? Really? He’s not good for you. You could do so much better; you deserve so much better.”

She yanked her hands away, turning to move the popcorn off the burner once the popping died down.

“Who I deserve doesn’t matter. What matters is who I choose, and I choose Billy. You’re my friend, so you should respect that.”

She carefully poured the popcorn into a bowl, chopping up some butter into small chunks and mixing it in with some salt. Steve continued to talk, but she was finished with the argument.

“Of course, I respect- hey,” he leaned over the counter, trying to catch her eye, “I respect you; I just want what’s best for you.”

she sighed, “well, it’s not really your job to decide what’s best for me. It’s to support me like I supported you getting over Nancy, and how I support whatever it is your doing with Robin and my brother, even though you won’t tell me what that is.”

“That’s for your own good, too,” he defended energetically, following her back out of the kitchen. He only paused briefly to recollect the chicken and bring it to the living room where everyone else was.

“Whatever. I’m not talking about this anymore. I just want a nice, quiet night with the people I care for.”

~

After the first movie was over, the kids had decided to migrate somewhere else and do their own thing. Steve, (y/n) and Billy, however, chose to pop in a second movie and finish off what was left of the snacks.

About halfway through, she’d begun to pass out. Steve watched as her position leaning against the back of the couch started to slide to the side. She’d almost completely fallen against his shoulder when a big arm wrapped around her and pulled her into Billy’s side where she curled up against his chest with a sleepy grunt and fell all the way asleep.

Steve broke his stare from her face to look up at Billy. The other guy was giving him a look as if at any second Steve was going to rip (y/n) out of his grip and run away with her. “Was that necessary?” he questioned, completely annoyed and decidedly not really all that interested in watching the movie (y/n) picked out now that she was asleep.

“I don’t know, was it?” Billy accused, “my girlfriend’s best friend is a guy who’s in love with her. Normally, I’m not so insecure, but this… this is different. (y/n)’s different.”

He could have denied it, he could have said what he always says when the topic is brought up. He could continue to parrot her and say they were just friends, and that he didn’t feel that way, but he’d be lying. When he broke up with Nancy, there had been a lot of girls clamoring to comfort him, but (y/n) was the only one who had succeeded. She hadn’t offered to go out with him to make Nancy jealous, she hadn’t flirted with him or tried to take Nancy’s place, she’d just been nice to him and for some reason, that was what had gotten him to fall for her. Her kindness came without strings and without an agenda. She just thought he might need a friend. Turns out, he needed more than that.

“Yeah, well, it’s not like she knows that, or would even believe you if you told her. She’s smart, but she can be kind of oblivious.”

Billy snorted, “Yeah, tell me about it. she didn’t even realize I’d been trying to flirt and make her jealous until I straight up told her.”

“Lucky you, she believed you when you said it.”

Funnily enough, the conversation about their shared feelings for the same girl was the first conversation they’d had that hadn’t resulted in violence of some kind.

“You don’t deserve her, you know.”

Billy laughed lowly, lowering his voice a bit so he wouldn’t wake the girl in his arms, “Yeah, but neither do you. One day she’ll wake up and realize that she’s too smart and too capable to be hanging around a guy like me and that I’m just weighing her down, and she’ll leave me. You really think when she does, she’s going to go rushing off to you--a guy who scoops ice cream for a living and according to Heather, didn’t get into college? Face it, neither of us are endgame for her, I’m just the one that gets to enjoy the short-term benefits.”

Steve huffed, disgusted and upset by the images running through his mind when Billy says, ‘short-term benefits’. “Just don’t hurt her,” he finally said, after filtering a few other choice words through his brain.

“So far, I haven’t been the one hurting her if that argument in the kitchen you two had is anything to go by.”

“You know what I mean, man,” Steve continued coldly, “You’re a violent guy. You respond to conflict with fists. One day, you’re going to get mad, you’re going to lash out, and you’re going to hurt her in a way you can’t take back.”

Billy rolled his eyes, but Steve’s words were getting to him just a tad. He tightened his hold on (y/n) protectively in response, “and when I do, you’ll be there to comfort her, right?” He sassed.

“Maybe, maybe not. Maybe she’ll go to Dustin, or her mom, or someone else. But make no mistake, when you hurt her-”

“If,” Billy corrected.

“When. When you hurt her, I’ll kick your ass.”

Billy laughed heartily, calming himself down when (y/n) began to stir, “You already tried that, Harrington, you couldn’t pull it off.”

“For (y/n), I could.”

That had been the end of it. Once the second movie ended, Billy got up from the couch effectively waking the girl that had been cuddling him.

“I gotta take the kid home,” he grumbled, walking towards Dustin’s room and emerging from it with both girls sleepily trailing behind him.

(y/n) yawned, questioning the whereabouts of the other guests, and was given the answer that the boys were sleeping over. She nodded groggily.

“El, you need a ride home, Hon? she’d questioned.

“I got her, don’t worry about it.” Billy assured, “It’s no big deal, really,” he said again when she’d asked him if he was sure.

She followed them to the front door, and watched the girls sleepily talk and giggle with each other as they made their way to the car, but Billy lingered. He grabbed her hand in his, and brought it to his lips, “did I behave well enough tonight?”

she smiled, letting the air rush out her nose, “You did very well, I’m proud,” she leaned up to kiss him sweetly, “I see a third date somewhere in your future.”

“I’m going to hold you to that, I know just the spot. We’ll head there after work the next time we’re on the late shift together, pack an overnight bag.”

She giggled, body full of nerves, “That sounds ominous and exciting. Can’t wait.”

They said their goodnights and she waved his car off before she shut the door and turned back inside. Steve was standing in the archway of the living room staring at her.

“Well? Do you have something to say? Are you going to tell me to wait until marriage, talk about the importance of upholding good Christian values, maybe rip a phonebook in half or something?”

Steve shook his head, moving towards the hall closet silently. He knew where they kept the extra pillows and blankets for guests, he’d slept over on their couch countless times in the past year.

“No, you already know how I feel. I trust you to make your own decisions, just… be careful, okay?” He ended the conversation by kissing her forehead and ruffling her hair.

She wiped the spot he’d kissed with the back of her hand and started making her way up the stairs away from him, but even though he didn’t follow her up to her room, his words certainly did.


End file.
